A Matter Of Time
by RySenkari
Summary: Arkayna and Zarya find themselves captured and trapped in a dungeon. Chained up tightly and prevented from speaking, they must still find a way to work together and try to escape. When their escape hits an unexpected snag, and unspoken feelings come suddenly and dramatically to the surface, can they keep each other's spirits up and resume their efforts?


Darkness, the rattling of chains, and silent desperation. For two of Drake City's bravest heroes, the world had been reduced to those three things, and there was little hope of that changing any time soon.

The Mysticon Ranger Zarya and the Mysticon Dragon Mage Arkayna had been struggling in the dark dungeon for what seemed like hours. Arkayna had been suspended from the ceiling, her wrists shackled above her while her shackled feet dangled a few inches from the ground, while Zarya had her wrists shackled behind her back and connected by a chain to a bolt embedded in the cold stone wall. Her ankles, like Arkayna's, were shackled tightly as well. It would have been the perfect opportunity for a nice conversation, but their captors, a band of mercenaries hired by Tazma, had silenced the girls with duct tape. Arkayna was gagged with one strip, while Zarya was gagged with two, having earned a second strip for shouting muffled swears at one of their captors who she felt was being a bit too rough with Arkayna when they were first being chained up. Without the use of words or hands, neither could form a single spell, though not for lack of trying. Were one able to be a fly on the wall, one would have heard more than a dozen cries of "Time to howl!" and "Unleash the dragon!" of various degrees of intelligibility between the two captive heroines during their time in the cell. Sprinkled in with the countless attempts at magical incantations were many other muffled grunts and groans, including a variety of swears that Zarya herself had uttered many times in the Undercity but had never thought she'd hear come from the lips of a princess, even tape-sealed ones, until she'd heard Arkayna shout them futilely within the walls of their small shared prison.

Though their bodies were tired and their minds were frustrated, the two girls continued to struggle. While Arkayna, wrists shackled above her head, tried swinging from side to side like she'd been doing ever since she'd been locked up with Zarya, her arms were very sore, and her feet, flexed inside their boots, ached from having to prop the princess up on her tiptoes whenever she wanted to give her shoulders a rest. Zarya, on the other hand, had been pushing hard against the wall her wrists were chained to. Her feet pushed against the stone as she tested the chain connected to her wrists for all it was worth, but it had to be made of some kind of dwarven metal, as it had shown no signs of weakening from the dozens of times she'd tried to pull it out of the wall.

The two captives shared a look, one of many they'd shared during their captivity. Though the tape over their mouths kept them from forming coherent sentences, they could read each other's eyes and body language quite well, and when they spoke slowly enough, could understand certain words when combined with the visual cues they were able to give one another.

 _Still hanging in there, princess?_ Zarya emoted. The only word Arkayna could understand out of all of that was 'princess', but combined with Zarya's look of calm concern, she knew exactly what the Mysticon Ranger meant and nodded her head in response.

 _I'm okay, Zarya, but I don't think you should keep straining yourself like that!_ Arkayna spoke entirely with her eyes, trying her best to communicate her concern. Zarya understood, and simply smirked under the tape. _I mean it, you'll dislocate your shoulders if you keep that up!_

Zarya grunted and pushed her feet against the wall again, cursing under the tape as a familiar wave of pain shot through her muscles. She looked back at her arms, almost as if to tell them to shut up, and let out another, slightly louder grunt as she gave her chains another hard tug.

Arkayna watched as Zarya fought against her bonds, feeling guilty that she'd taken a momentary break from her struggles. Though she didn't look it, and though her upbringing would seem to preclude it, Arkayna was every bit as brave and fierce as her friend Zarya was. She'd trained in the martial and magical arts since the moment she could walk, all in preparation for fighting to defend the realm. Though she was a pampered princess and Zarya was a street-smart orphan, the two of them had the hearts of warriors, and neither would allow innocent people to come to harm without fighting with everything they had, even to the death, to protect them.

Their eyes locked again, and Arkayna started to struggle once more. Zarya could hear Arkayna cry out as her feet left the ground when she swung herself back.

 _Arkayna, don't!_ Zarya shouted, a drop of sweat coming down the side of her face as she yelled out to her friend, defying the tape that kept her lips tightly shut. _It's all right, I'll get us both out of this, you don't have to do anything else!_

Arkayna understood every word, and shook her head. She too had worked up a fierce sweat in her struggles, and as she began to swing forward again, she looked at Zarya with determination in her eyes.

 _We're both prisoners and I'm going to fight just as hard as you to get us out._ Arkayna gave Zarya the commanding and confident look of a leader and a princess, to which Zarya responded by redoubling her own efforts.

 _By the stars, why's she have to be so goblin-damned stubborn?_ Zarya mused in frustration and admiration. _Guess I'll have to fight even harder to get free first!_

With a loud cry of effort, Zarya pushed herself against the wall, pulling hard at her chains and forcing her legs upward. She got herself several inches higher, which surprised both herself and Arkayna. Arkayna stopped swinging for a moment, and Zarya kept going, grunting and grimacing as she continued to inch her way upward.

 _It's like Kitty always says..._ thought Zarya as she looked around for anything that might help her escape. _I just have to find the angle._

Zarya could see that if she was able to get her feet up more, she could possibly use them to get a hold of the bolt that her wrist chain was connected to, which might allow her a way to get her wrists up to the torch above her head. She didn't know if the torch would be hot enough to actually melt the chains, but the flame might weaken them a bit, allowing Zarya to break the chains with one good tug. It was as good a plan as any, and Zarya kept her eyes locked on the torch as she continued to push her feet slowly upward against the wall.

While Zarya was struggling to get her feet closer to the bolt, Arkayna had been looking around the cell for what must have been the hundredth time. She could see a torch on the other side of the room, along with an unoccupied cage dangling from the ceiling.

 _I've got nothing to work with here..._ thought Arkayna, who could hear Zarya struggling hard on the other side of the room. _Maybe if I can swing onto the top of that cage... but my feet are shackled too close together to have anything to grab onto... wait a minute, there IS a torch on the other side of the room... if I can swing over to it, I can use the flame on the shackle binding my feet, and pull them apart! Then I can grab the torch with my feet, use the cage to hold it in place, and use the flame on my wrist shackles!_

It was a convoluted plan, and a longshot to work, but Arkayna was willing to try anything at this point, she just had to tell Zarya to stop struggling and let her put her plan into motion. Arkayna turned her head back toward Zarya at the moment that Zarya was making her most determined push yet.

 _Hold on, Zar-_ Arkayna was stopped in mid-sentence by something pushing hard against her lips... it was Zarya, specifically Zarya's own lips, pressed directly and fiercely against Arkayna's own. "Mmmmm?!"

Though the girls were both gagged, they could feel each other's lips through the three pieces of sticky adhesive between them as if the tape wasn't there at all. Their eyes, wide in surprise, shock, and an ever so slight bit of terror, looked straight into the other's, and though their immediate instinct was to pull away, their bodies defied that instinct and remained locked in that position for an eternal moment. One second became two, and two became three, and Zarya and Arkayna never once took their eyes off each other. Zarya could feel her face burning, a bright red blush spread across her cheeks in an instant, with the rest of her face following almost immediately. Arkayna began to blush a second later, and though it never got as red as Zarya's did, it was showing just the same as the glow of the torch illuminated their faces.

 _Arkayna..._ Zarya could feel an electricity through her entire body. Her heart rate accelerated, and her legs trembled, barely keeping her in place against the wall. Her fists, which had been tightly clenched, began to relax, while inside her gloves, her hands began to sweat.

 _Zarya..._ Arkayna could see Zarya blushing, but in that moment could say nothing that would even begin to explain or alleviate any of the tension both of them were feeling. Arkayna felt the same electricity that Zarya felt, though to somewhat of a lesser extent, and her heart, while not beating quite as fast as Zarya's was, was fluttering in a way she'd only previously experienced during times when she was very close to her friend Malvaron. As the kiss continued into its fourth second, and then its fifth, Arkayna could feel a vibration against her lips as the Mysticon Ranger emitted an involuntary moan. Arkayna could see Zarya's eyes begin to narrow, almost imperceptibly. The kiss continued, and Arkayna began to feel something else... a feeling that she was almost... in spite of everything... comfortable.

Then, as suddenly as it had begun, the kiss ended. Zarya's increasingly wobbly legs could no longer support her efforts to push against the wall, and she lost her footing. She fell back into the wall, and slammed into it with a loud and painful grunt.

 _Zarya!_ Arkayna screamed, wide-eyed over the gag, her nose flaring rapidly as she tried to catch her breath. _Oh my goblin, are you okay?_

The pain snapped Zarya back to reality, and she blinked her eyes and instinctively reached up to rub the back of her head, only to realize that her wrists were still bound. She let out a frustrated grunt before the realization of what she and Arkayna had just done all rushed back to her at once. She looked up at Arkayna, air whistling rapidly through her nostrils. She wanted to explain everything, apologize, but the cruel gag wouldn't let her, and all she could do was muster up an embarrassed look. Upon realizing that Zarya wasn't hurt, Arkayna let out a sigh of relief, then blinked a few times, remembering the kiss and what they'd felt and wondering what it all meant and wanting so much for this damned gag to be off her lips so she could say everything she wanted to say...!

 _Zarya, it's all right, it was an accident..._ Arkayna's expression communicated the sentiment as best she could, but Zarya's expression was unchanged. _Anyway, we have to get out of this...I have a plan...!_

Zarya was still having trouble calming herself down...Arkayna had seen _everything_. How she'd blushed, how she'd...

 _I was moaning, I practically passed out...!_ thought Zarya, her mind still racing. She kept looking up at Arkayna, feeling a lump in her throat and feeling her eyes start to well up. _And now I'm going to cry...snap out of it, Zarya...!_

Arkayna could see that Zarya was in no mood to think about plans, or escaping, or anything else. Not right now, anyway. She needed something else...they both needed something else.

They both needed to know that everything was going to be okay.

Arkayna looked at Zarya, and her lips curved into a smile beneath the tape. She started to say "it's okay", but stopped herself before making a sound, and let her eyes say it instead.

 _It's okay, Zarya._ Arkayna kept looking at her friend, and smiling at her, and giving her a look of pure acceptance and compassion and understanding. _No matter what you feel, it's okay. I will always be here._

A single tear slid down Zarya's face. Zarya understood completely.

 _It's okay, Zarya._ Zarya repeated that to herself in her mind, and with Arkayna's help, it didn't take her long to believe it. _It's okay. It's going to be okay._

The Mysticon Dragon Mage and the Mysticon Ranger gave each other an understanding nod, and Zarya let the tear she'd shed fall to the floor. Then, the two girls both looked at the torch above Zarya's head, and then back at each other.

 _It's magic hour._

The tape muffled Arkayna's familiar battle phrase, but Zarya could hear it loud and clear.

 _All right, princess. Let's figure out a plan to get out of this._

Zarya's reply was silent, letting her eyes do the talking. Even without words, even with their bodies bound, the two brave, resourceful Mysticons would get out of this predicament. As long as they had each other, nothing could stop them.

It was only a matter of time.


End file.
